Lyricapsule: Pixies Drop ‘Doolittle’; April 18, 1989

One of the core albums responsible for ushering in an era of frenetic indie rock millennials are still pissed off they weren’t born a few years earlier for, Kurt Cobain‘s loud-quiet idols, the Pixies, dropped Doolittle on this day in 1989. We all know the over-produced, sterile crap that was dominating pop-culture around then. But to put what if felt like to drop a needle on lead-off track “Debaser” into perspective, this was a year that Poison sucked the souls out of young hearts with “Every Rose Has its Thorn.”

To hear Kim Deal non-chalantly lay down a muddy bass line for Black Francis to come in and shred the shit out of it with a tale about a noir film that reduced the pretenses of what it means, and the morals required, to make art, was a level of refreshment that doesn’t happen often. To “slicing up eyeballs,” choruses that mean nothing and everything at the same time, and ‘girls so groovy,” thank you, Pixies:

Got me a movie
I want you to know
Slicing up eyeballs
I want you to know
Girl you’re so groovy
I want you to know
Don’t know about you
…

About Gavin Paul

Gavin Paul is SONGLYRICS' resident Content Guru. Chicago-bred, New York-sculpted, his words and ideas have appeared in publications ranging from Spin and Rolling Stone to The Chicago Sun-Times and Arborist News.